Trebuchet

I think it would be safer to set this up as a Mind Control scenario rather than as a character designed to do this from the get-go. That will reduce player hostilities. Also, it would make more sense for a long-established character to do this. Who really trusts the new guy anyway? We had this happen in a campaign I played in years ago, where the most popular member of the group (IRL & IG) was Mind Controlled and over the course of several adventures repeatedly sabotaged our group until we finally found out. We all got over it when we found out, although it certainly didn't hurt that the player was a very attractive girl.

In my campaign we use a guideline of SPEED + Damage Class <= 20. This makes for fast martial artists who don't hit as hard as the slower but more powerful bricks and energy projectors. Even more important than a Rule of X is communication between the players so they don't step on each other's "schtick". On my team of 7 heroes we have 3 martial artists and they are all very different from each other in abilities and personality.

Re: Re: Coming Soon: Real-world Robot Soldiers Not necessarily. I believe all bomb disposal robots are remote controlled. This sounds more like the Army is trying to design a robot that can perform these functions without direct human supervision. Also, there is a tremendous difference between the needs of an urban police force having a balky robot in the city where it can be repaired quickly if it malfunctions, and the needs of the military to have a capable robot with high enough reliability that it can be used in battlefield conditions. After all, soldiers can break tanks.

Issac Asimov was an idealist. Humans have always used their technology to kill each other, so the famous "Three Laws of Robotics" were never anything but a pipe dream of his. We've used robots to kill each other for decades: In essence a guided missile is nothing but a single-purpose throw-away robot. ("That's right, R2, I said ram him and self destruct!") In order for the 3 Laws to be plausible, humans would first have to build robots that were capable of not following those laws by the robot's own choice, i.e., self-aware robots. We're a long way from that level of technology. In the meantime robots will continue to do whatever their programmers tell them to do.

From the FAQ: Based on this, it appears that my friends were correct in saying an RKA 1d6 has no BODY Penetrate on a roll of 1, 1 BODY Penetrate on a roll of 2-5, and 2 BODY Penetrate on a roll of 6. However, I'm confused by the second option in the FAQ answer. Where does the "1 Point of Penetrating effect per DC" come from? Is that an "official" alternate method such as Standard Effects (Which we do not use in our campaign)? Does this mean that a 2d6 RKA PEN would always do 6 BODY minimum? (Ouch!) Or does it mean it always does 1 BODY per DC whenever it is a Killing or other type of attack that effects BODY directly? Thanks, and I look forward to seeing more of your "light-saber fu", Master Obi Long.

While I quite agree with Supreme that many governments would hesitate to use free-lance superheroes, I also suspect that many nations (if not most) would have superheroes in their military forces. In some countries superheroes might be required to work for the government under penalty of law. For example, while I find it very unlikely that China or Syria would tolerate freelance heroes, America might well have superhero SEAL detachments and Powered Armor-clad Secret Service agents guarding the White House. Now for a more philosophical question: If a character is seen as a hero in his country (Fights street crime, rescues kitties stuck in trees, supports local charities, etc.), but his country is seen as villainous by the rest of the world, is he considered a supervillain or a superhero? How would the rest of the world view Bagdad Bob, Saddam's personal superhero bodyguard? How would Hauptmann Hakenkreutz, the official hero of Nazi Germany, be viewed today?

Steve: If a character has a Penetrating Killing Attack against a non-Hardened target, does the BODY damage that Penetrates equal the total pips on the dice, or 0 Body for every "1" rolled, 1 BODY for every "2-5" rolled, and 2 BODY for every "6" rolled as if you are calculating BODY for a Normal attack? I read it as being equal to the total pips on the dice, but my fellow players disagree. Example: Tachyon fires a 2d6 RKA Penetrating at Defender. The die rolls are "2" and "5". Does Defender take: 1) 2 BODY 2) 7 BODY 3) None of the above, we're all idiots and should be playing AD&D Help us, Obi Long Kenobi, you're our only hope!

You raise some excellent points, and I much prefer the HERO method to the straight die rolls of AD&D. I have seen (and performed!) some incredible stunts in Champions that some so-called RPGs can't begin to approach. As a personal example: Many years ago I played a female ninja I cleverly called Spirit Ninja (In case I ever forgot what she was. ). During an underground battle against a flock (gaggle? bite? fang?) of vampires, my character was teleported by a mnd-controlled teammate to the top of a metal high-tension electrical tower, along with one of the vampire lords. She'd already seen her weaponry was rather ineffective against the undead, and the vampire smiled as he realized they were both 100 feet above the ground and he could fly. My character, as he well knew, couldn't fly. He uttered the usual words to the effect of "I have you now! Soon you'll be one of my slaves forever. Yadda yadda..." My character pulled her metal weighted chain (1" Stretching)and threw it around the vampires outstretched wrist, then replied "Not in this lifetime!" as she jumped off the tower and simultaneously looped the metal chain over the high voltage cables. She used her grappling hook to save herself from the fall. Afterwards the only identifiable pieces of the former undead were his melted bits of jewelry.

Here is my character Ranger, the first Champions character I ever built way back in 1982 (Although this version of his powered armor dates from around 1986) I now use him as a solo NPC superhero in my campaign. As recently redesigned for 5th Edition using Hero Designer (I never built a 4th Edition version of Ranger because I retired him in 1987) he's 475 points of a$$-whooping with an 80 STR, 16d6EB (boostable to 24d6 for one shot), 52 PD & 52 ED, most of it Hardened. He's got 125 XP, and is heavy on the hard sciences (He's a physicist in his Secret ID.)

COM seems for most HERO players to be more along the lines of a roleplaying Characteristic. Many players seem to prefer to regard their characters as good looking (or ugly) in order to have a better concept of their character. For myself I've seldom built a female character with a COM lower than 16 nor a male lower than 12. In Champions that seems particularly appropriate, as most superheroes (and even more superheroines) are very good looking. Wonder Woman, Storm, Susan Richards, Rogue, and Starfire are all major babes. If players don't like using COM, they can always just go with the free 10 COM and ignore it. Or sell some of it back and take the points. For myself, I'll continue to spend the 3 or 4 points to make my heroines gorgeous.

Re: Steel Guardian I didn't even know Hero Machine had a paid version. Does it do anything the free version doesn't?

I did something similar to this in an AD&D game I ran 20 years ago. I had a critter called a "Mana Mimic" which imitated a wizard's staff and sucked spells from any magic user who held it at the rate of 1 spell level per hour. It started at the high level (less used) spells, then worked it's way down through the magic user's spells until he had none left (Typically several days). Of course it could throw lightning bolts and fireballs to convince the magic user it was a legitimate staff. Once it drained him dry it slithered away like a snake. You could do it in HERO as a Drain Magic Pool or even as a magic item rather than a creature. Perhaps after it's full it crawls back to it's real master...